Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

THE GIST: When world-renowned and famed recluse Willy Wonka announces that he has hidden five golden tickets inside five random chocolate bars, the world goes crazy. The five lucky winners would win a tour of Wonka's candy factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Everybody wants to find a ticket, but none more than Charlie Bucket, whose family is so poor they can barely afford food at all.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is one of those classic family movies that have a sterling reputation, but I wasn't particularly impressed.

Gene Wilder is good in Wonka's role and the child actors are pretty good too, especially Peter Ostrum, but they play parts that are a bit too cartoonish. I'm sure kids don't pick up on such subtleties, but adults do.

Also, while the inclusion of the Oompa Loompas might have wowed audiences at the time, the whole ballet sequence was just jarring.

THE BOTTOM LINE: I guess it's okay for the little ones. Hardly worth of all the fanfare in my opinion.

Grade: 6